I am currently starting out at learning all about Linux and am facing some challenges with some of the work I am required to learn. How would one use the find command to locate emails I sent from a .mail directory and the ones that I received?

What have you tried so far?
The find command can locate files. So describe some examples of:

• emails I sent from a .mail directory
• emails I received from a .mail directory

Otherwise we're just guessing..

Alternatively, if you want to search inside of files, you might want to use grep

And "find" isn't the simplest command to start off with. Likewise its manpage.

So many options make it very difficult to comprehend.

My assignment was to create 3 email accounts in a cpanel and then update a rule to use in spam assassin. I was then prompted to send out 3 emails through the command line to a certain email address. The next thing they want me to do specifically is this:
• Using find, locate the emails that you sent from the ./mail directory on your account. 

• Using find, locate the emails that you received. 


I am not real familiar with find and just started to learn find and grep just this week so I was just looking for some advice on where to even start with find command. Sorry I am very much a noob and eager to learn.

This a test account that I am working on at the moment designed to educate us.

-- To search for lost files type:
find / -name nameoflostfile -print (this will start seaching from root which may take awhile, or you can just type a specific directory path instead of the root) To search for lost files in the current directory type find . -name nameoflostfile -print

-- To seach for files you forgot the full name of type:
find pathofdirectory -name 'partofFilename*' -print (this will seach that part of the name from whatever directory path you specified) also if you want you can search mutiple directory paths, just add it with a space..

-- To search for files with variables of time type:
find pathofdirectory -mtime -3 -print (this will search for all files modified in the last 3 days) or use -mmin for minutes

Look through the man pages for more options, theres alot of useful ones...

Welcome to LQ!
(Wow: cpanel is new to me! 'spam assassin rules'? You must be a guru vs. noob-me )

This web-search will find you tons of great stuff, guaranteed :
(Being an old Unix'er, I love all the tricks that `find` can do!) Best wishes!

p.s. another thought: by any chance, is this more related to
MTA/MUA storing emails in /var/spool/mail/<username> or ~/mbox or ...
Or some 'internal' storing by SpamAssassin? (again, I know zero about that)

Can you tell us more about that ".mail" or "./mail" dir?
I'm not clear about: "the emails that you sent from the [dot?]mail directory on your account"
(btw, are you familiar with like: ~john/.mailrc == ~/.mailrc == ./.mailrc ?)

**What exact way/command are you using to send the 3 mail?

It also depends on your mail box format. One type puts each mail folder in a single file, one file per mail folder. The other uses the file system to mirror your mail box hierarchy with one file per message. If I understand correctly the former is called mbox and the latter maildir. Only with maildir will you have an easy time using find to search individual messages.